So… going to Bolivia!
DAY 1
At 0700 in the morning I set of from San Pedro de Atacama to enter Bolivia via the Bolivian dessert riding with 6 other people in a 4 wheel drive. The only vehicle able to withstand the harsh country and to get us safely through the dessert to the salt flats of Uyuni, in the southern part of Bolivia.
The first part of the trip to the Bolivian border we did in bus and from an altitude of 3000 meters, the adventure started. The first thing we saw was the White Laguna in an altitude of almost 4000 meters. The name originates from the color as it is almost frozen to the very bottom and contains a lot of salt which comes from the mountains. Just ten minutes from there was the Green Laguna, a lake which is colored by the minerals which it contains; led and arsenic. Truly beautiful as the contrast of lake stand against the sandy mountains all around. We did not have a lot of time to spend on each sight as we had a long way to go, so we continued on to what is called the Dessert of Dali. The pictures that I have taken do not do it justice but i promise that the rock formations looked just like a picture Dali could have painted; obscure and very surrealistic. All it needed was a few long-legged elephants and a melting watch.
Basically thrown into the vehicle again we went on to what would be the height of the day, or so I thought every-time we stopped for a new sight. This time we got to bathe in the hot springs of the mountains. As I had not had a hot shower for three - four days I was basically in heaven and everyone in the car was pleased that neither of us was smelling horrible anymore. The water was 30 degrees warm and the air around 10 degrees so it was hard getting out of the water. Though after half an hour we we bound for the next stop - the geysers. Again I thought I was on another planet as the holes in the ground was filled with bubbling grey mud and was fuming vapor in the air. It smelled like an ogre had broken wind but it was just the intense smell of sulphur that originated from the geysers. Travellers have died here but if you insist on trudging the very edge of the geyshers you have to calculate the risk of falling into 300 degrees hot mud. A Japanese traveller was cooked a few years ago. It has to be mentioned that here we were in 5400 meters and if you have never tried that before then believe me every movement is as lifting 50kg of stone with your lungs. This was my first taste of altitude sickness as I encountered a headache on the same level as the pain tinnitus can give you. Out driver pulled out a bag of coco leaves and soon the pain was relieved. (Note on coco leaves: not cocaine or anything near that but enhances the amount of oxygen you can take in through your lungs.)
The final stop was the Colorado Laguna where the lake is red from marine algae and rich on salt. Flamingos were living here but they were not happy with travellers and kept a long way out in the laguna. The pictures are amazing and if you ask politely I will show them ;o)
We spend our first night here in a small house with rooms for seven each and I have never been so happy to share a room with seven strangers. Minus 22 degrees by night and i slept with my clothes on, in my sleeping bag beneath 4 thick woollen blankets. I really experienced the altitude sickness here as i went dizzy, thought i had a fever and my headache continued to even higher proportions. I slept for 11 hours.
DAY 2
We set out from our small clay cottage at 0800 and our first stop was the forest of stone. It is so called as the rocks are formed by wind and weather to a point where you have a thin rock trunk at the bottom and a huge bolder at the top - hence the the name as it looks like a tree. The rest of that was mostly spend in the 4WD occasionally interrupted by another beautiful laguna or a view point to a huge snow capped volcano.
We stopped for lunch at a small village in the dessert which seemed deserted. Only a few women and children was seen as the rest of the village was working in the fields, either with lamas or agriculture. They will be out from very early morning until late afternoon. Interesting village and the contrast of a basic clay cottage with a huge satellite disc in front is always a sight.
The evening was spend at the outskirts of the salt planes of Uyuni in a hotel made almost fully of salt. The interior like tables, seats and walls was constructed from bricks of salts dogged out from the salt planes. We had a very cosy evening here and enjoyed a few treats like a cup of vodka and a hot shower.
DAY 3
At 0600 I got up to see the rising of the sun over the salt planes. Truly a magic moment but the colors are not as distinct due to it rising over mountains of 5500 meters. We set out at 0800 after a basic breakfast of coffee and cake (????) and our first stop was the excavation point of the salt bricks. From there we went on to what would become the high point of the trip; Island of Fish. From here it is time for some facts on the salt plane to better understand.
For millions of years the lake “Minchin” covered most of the southwest of Bolivia. 50.000 years ago it vaporized and laid dry for app. 1.000 years until another wet era came to be. From this era emerged the lake “Tauca” which dried out some 14.000 years ago and laid the base for what today is the biggest salt plane in the world. Both lakes were salt lakes but the majority of the salt comes from the surrounding mountains and now covers 12.000 square meters. Every year the salt plane increases with 200 meters in all directions and reaches depths from 10cm - 12 m.
The island of Fish, as mentioned earlier, is a volcanic island that has been around for million and millions of years. The view from atop of this island is absolutely astonishing and mind blowing. White is everywhere around and like mushrooms, 32 volcanic islands seem to pop up and gives you the sensation that this white landscape actually was a lake 15.000 years ago. The salt plane it self does not encompass an eco-system as almost all other places of the world. Salt is not something that makes life but derives all living organisms of the option to live. The islands on the other hand does include life and vegetation. It is not rich but you can find cactus and rabbits. As I am standing on the Island of Fish I find myself next to a cactus towering pathetically 9 meters into the air and counts no more than 1.263 years of age. The wisest cactus on earth, I guess.
Here ended our trip. We went directly to uyuni and from here on my travels goes to Sucre which is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, but not the official (La Paz).
